Chicken Holy Basil

JulesMay 16, 2014

Chicken Holy Basil Stir Fry

(Pad Gapow Gai)

Chicken and Holy Basil stir fry is wonderfully savoury and quite spicy traditional Thai recipe. If you do this one right you will have a delightful gastronomic experience, spicy overtones on a savoury base with succulent tender chicken and sweet peppers all finished off with the refreshing flavour and aroma of holy basil. Really good for losing weight as for some reason it suppresses your appetite so you don’t get hungry again so soon. Well it works for me anyway!

Preparation:
Wash, cut and slice the chicken
Cut up a 1/3 of a medium sized onion and the sweet chilli and leave
Cut spring onion about (1″ logs)
Pick holy basil leaves from the stems and rinse, leave to drain dry
Slice the garlic and Thai chillies (or pound)

Cooking:
Pour the oil into a wok and heat to medium high heat
Add chillies and garlic, stir fry until good aroma comes (usually 5-10 seconds if oil is right temp)
Add the chicken and stir fry for about 3 minutes adding a little water as needed
Add fish sauce, seasoning sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, onion and sweet chillies
Stir fry together for about 2 minute test for good savoury sweet, flavour
Add holy basil stir fry for under 1 minute and remove from heat

Serving Suggestion:
Lightly pack a bowl of hot Jasmine rice and invert onto a plate, serve the chicken and basil alongside and voila! Traditionally, it is served with a crispy fried egg on top. A really nice dish to compliment is our Pork Ribs with Garlic or if you fancy something sweet try our Thai Sweet Chicken and of course you can never go wrong with our Lettuce and Pork Soup It goes great with Vegetable Stir Fry for a lovely savoury contrast.

Our first ever video (and it shows) Cringe!

Khwanjai’s Top Tips:
This video demonstrates how you can be flexible with the sauces, we made a lovely meal for two that was not too spicy (as you get in too many places) enabling the camera man and I, to enjoy all the different flavours, cooked to perfection I might add.
As usual Khwanjai gets her English measurements mixed up and I talk too much, the recipe is correct, enjoy!
You cannot use sweet basil for this and don’t let the name fool you, sweet basil has an aniseed/liquorice flavour, is more bitter and pungent than holy basil (which is more like cloves) and can overpower the dish if you’re not careful. I any case sweet basil is not “Gapow” an acceptable alternative would be fresh mint (use less) or baby spinach (use more), it won’t be the same but still very pleasant or 1 drop of essence of cloves.
Here’s a link to our Thai Food Wiki mentioned in the video so you don’t use the wrong basil
A better alternative if you can’t get holy basil is baby spinach; use more though, because spinach shrinks down more than basil. Or if you fancy it, try fresh mint, neither are quite the same, but very passable alternatives
When adding the garlic at the start, it should only 5 – 10 seconds to start turning golden brown if it takes longer yer fat aint hot enough, it’s not a problem, just wait until it starts and by then – it’s hot enough
Other vegetables frequently added to make it go further are cauliflower and broccoli

Print the recipe! It helps to have it at hand when watching to make notes, Khwanjai does this every time, especially when she’s experimenting.

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